Cucumber Beach + Old Belize {Family Caribbean Day 6}

Hello, easy, breezy, beautiful Belize!

After yesterday, Belize has some big, fun shoes to fill. When researching Belize, all of the excursions that appealed to us were too "mature" for the girlies. Ziplining, cave tubing, ATV riding. Almost all of them had the minimum age requirement of around 10 and some were as far as 2.5 hours from the port (with Willa in the car, no bueno), so we had nothing planned getting off the ship. But, we did know that we had a great time at Little French Key, and that you can't really go wrong with a beach outing in beautiful weather, so after tendering into port, we met up with the folks at 5 Star Tours, and negotiated $40 roundtrip transportation to Old Belize and Cucumber Beach. $10 per person for a day of fun at the beach didn't sound too bad.

All sunscreen-ed up and ready for Belize

 

It took about 25 minutes to get there from the port, which felt like an easy drive compared to yesterday's trek. On 5 Star's brochure, it advertised a 90 foot waterslide and a trampoline on the ocean with beach chairs and music, so we felt like it was somewhere we could go and spend the day. After how much fun Harper had yesterday, we knew she'd love it even if it only had three fish for her to "snorkel" after.

 

 

But, she did so much more than that.  In fact, she did it all. 

We were one of the first to arrive at the beach park (which the cruise line charged $65 per person for as an excursion) and at first, it looked a little desolate. They had to fire up the slide for Harper to go down. Sam asked her if she wanted to do it, and she said she would if he would go, too. So, up they went. I felt like it took them forever to get to the top. Finally, I see Sam come down the slide. I figured we would then see the kind lifeguard escorting Harper back down the 150 stairs, but next thing I knew, there she came flying down, too. That girl is so. much. fun. I figured we were going to get fussed at for convincing her to go down it, but instead, she was laughing and was super proud of herself. She said, "That was so nice of that man to let me go down the slide!" (She thought she wasn't tall enough, and he just let her, but according to the sign at the beach ticket counter, she was just fine to go down.)

The beach park stayed pretty quiet until around noon, when a lot of cruise ship folks showed up. We saw some fellow Norwegians (we could spot them easily by their matching striped towels). We ordered the girls some coconut shrimp and us some nachos for lunch, and a bucket of drinks for us all. There was a DJ there playin loud music, and a beach volleyball court. The girls played in the sand long enough for Sam and I to get in a little volleyball match. I only added that tidbit so that I could also announce that I won. :)

Sam and Harper went on the rope swing. Harper was pretty impressed with herself for showing up the middle school boys. She could hold her weight better, so she was able to swing further out. Kudos to Dad; he did pretty well, too. Willa and I didn't try the rope swing, but we did go out on the water trampoline for a bit. It had been about ten years since I "double-bounced" someone, so that, of course, made my day. It was a perfect set up for the kiddos, because it was saltwater with some fish for our resident snorkeler Harper, but it was blocked off from the main ocean, so there were absolutely no waves. Just calm saltwater. 

A sweet lady had come by to offer her braiding services right when we got there, but the girls were too excited by everything else to care much about having their hair done. But, by the mid afternoon, they had seen a few teenage girls and one older elementary-aged girl get their hair braided, and then they just had to do it. And, I mean, it's their first Caribbean cruise. Isn't it a little girl rite of travel passage to have your hair braided by an expert Caribbean stylist? We only had about 20 minutes until we needed to go head back for the boat, but luckily the girls wanted their hair done like the teenage girls did-- in a faux undercut style, which was basically three tiny braids on the side of their head. Originally, only Harper was going to get hers done, but then anything sissy does, WK wants to do. So, the sweet lady obliged us and quickly threw two tiny braids in her hair, too. $15 well spent, since we got five little braids and a nice chat with the Belizean lady doing their hair.

Tendering back to the ship

Making friends wherever they go

We got back to the ship at 4:30, and so we decided to shower the girls and lay them down for a late nap before dinner. The only problem is, they didn't get back up. Time after time, we would try to wake them up, only to have them stir, rustle in the blankets, and go right back to sleep. So, we decided they needed it, and Sam went to O'Sheehans for dinner solo and then brought me some dinner back to the room, and we watched Furious 7 before crashing ourselves at around 10. Y'know, living the vida loca. 

Click here for the rest of our trip to the Western Caribbean!